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Ian Ross

For the past few months I’ve been immersing myself almost exclusively in Indigenous playwriting. This intense interest was occasioned by developing a deeper interest in my own Cree/Metis heritage. I also have friends who are playwrights and became interested in that form of art. As I was soon to discover, Indigenous plays are a trove of artistic treasure. The author I first read was the late local Winnipeg playwright Ian Ross and his celebrated play FareWel. Farewel is set on a Manitoba reserve and deals with the crisis occasioned when the welfare cheques don't show up and the chief is away in Los Vegas gambling. The characters of the play are forced to take things into their own hands. The characters attempt to establish self government but this is treated more as a farce and source of dark humour. The play shows the economic marginalization of the characters on the reserve. They are always searching for cigarette butts. It could be argued that the drama uses a lot of stereotypes ...
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Albert Camus and the problem of Theodicy

 One literary author I really look back in interest with is the celebrated French novelist Albert Camus. I remember reading his novel l’Étranger in my French literature class in high school and not being sure what the hell to make of it. Its philosophy of the absurdity of the human condition struck a nerve with me,  but I couldn't relate to its generally pessimistic philosophy of life. However a year later I picked up a copy of his second novel, La Peste , and since then I have become a fan of Camus and deeply interested in his work. I guess I have found the philosophical and literary qualities much deeper in the Plague then the Stranger.  For me Camus seems to be addressing a key problem in philosophy and in the ordinary life of humanity, namely the understanding of suffering. One question in particular is how to explain the existence and goodness of God in the face of seemingly meaningless suffering. This in philosophy is called the problems of theodicy. In the Plague...
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Peace is every step

 As a  young adult, around a similar time as discovering Albert Camus,  I became influenced by Zen Buddhism. I came across a book by the gentle Vietnamese monk Thich Nhat Hanh,  called Peace is Every Step: the Path of Mindfulness In Everyday Life. Although Thich had already published other books,  his works such as,  the Miracle of Mindfulness ,  and Peace Is Every Step ,  were significant in further disseminating the practice of  mindfulness,  and Buddhism in general,  into the mainstream of western culture. Mindfulness,  effort, and concentration are part of the Buddhas eight fold path to liberation. He discusses concentration, effort, and mindfulness as part of what is called Samadhi or meditative absorption. Mindfulness is a simple practice that's not easy, at least for me.  It consists of the awareness of what is simply given here and now in the present moment, in mental awareness without judgment without graspi...
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Yogs Sutras of Patanjali

For some time now I have been reading a lot more Eastern spiritual writings. The Tao Te Ching, The Dhammapada,  The Bhagavad Gita, and in particular lately, the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali.  The Yoga Sutras are short aphorisms on the spiritual path compiled by one named Patanjali. The translation I use, Edwin Bryant's, dates it around the second or third century C.E, but some date it as early as 5th century B.C.E and as late as the fifth century C.E, but there is no scholarly consensus from what little I know. These terse aphorisms on the path of Yoga depend on a commentarial tradition to bring out what would have been just short mostly memorized teachings. For me the heart of the Yoga Sutras is contained in the second chapter on the practice of the Yoga Sutras. In the second chapter he outlines a path to spiritual liberation referred to as the Eight Limbs of Yoga or Astangayoga  .  This classical path of yoga, or royal path ( rajayoga  ) has captivated me more the...
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The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous

  For some time as an adult I have struggled with a dependency on alcohol and have been attending twelve step recovery groups, in particular Alcoholic Anonymous. The primary book of AA fellowship is the Big Book, as it is called, written by the cofounder of AA, Bill Wilson. It has become a large part of my life. Like Holy Scriptures it offers the possibility of finding a life on a new footing, based on a spiritual life. One of the more interesting chapter in the book describes how a hopeless alcoholic received therapy from the eminent  Dr. Carl Jung in Switzerland before the development of AA. He asked Dr Jung in desperation if there was any hope of him recovering from his alcoholism. Dr Jung remarked that there was little hope for such serious alcoholics as himself except for the possibility of a total spiritual reorientation of his being,  which he says has occurred in some alcoholics. He had been trying to encourage this in his patient.  As a Roman Catholic one wi...
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The Summa Theologica and Flannery O’Connor

  For many years now, particularly since becoming a Catholic, I have been reading theological works, not solely literary or secular philosophical works as I used to. I have tried to immerse myself in the best of them. For some time now I have been periodically dipping into the works of the Angelic Doctor, St Thomas Aquinas. I have had many different feelings about Thomas, not always totally positive, but slowly growing much more positive with age.  His method has often been viewed as cold, dry and hyper rationalistic by some detractors as well as an over reliance on Aristotle’s philosophy . His thought and writings were  taken by the Catholic Church to be canonical and authoritative and after Pope Leo XIII, the primary theologian and philosopher taught in all seminaries and Catholic schools. His actual works were not always read but outlined in manuals. During the time of Vatican II this official Thomism or neo-scholasticism was challenged and there came about a new plura...
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Russian Literature and the spiritual regeneration of man

    Lately I’ve been on a Russian literature kick, reading in particular Leo Tolstoy. I have always been a big fan of Dostoyevsky, but I have never read Tolstoy.  So I started with a volume of his later short stories in the Everyman library edition. There are a  lot of his short stories. Some of his stories are simple folk tales with very clear ethical messages. Some seemed similar to Jewish Hasidic folk tales or Aesop tales. Tolstoy's later writings are imbued with radical Gospel moral themes, such as non-violence and turning the other cheek, as well as stories of moral regeneration and redemption.  One of his more famous short stories in this collection is the work, the Death of Ivan Illich, which explores the question of how we should die,  and by extension how we should live our life in the knowledge of our own mortality. It is considered one of his masterpieces. After reading some of his short stories the main novel I read by Tolstoy was Resurrection. ...
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